Talk:Billboards
Main Article I was thinking maybe we should move this article to something like Billboards_(Burnout_Paradise) instead, and have the redirect as Billboard(s). Reason(s): *We have more than one type of billboard now, so Burnout Billboard or Paradise Billboard wouldn't make sense. *The mainland billboards no longer have Burnout on them, the wording is Paradise. :Sounds good to me, but don't do it yet. I will add it to my list of moves/link fixes I will be doing this weekend. Draft of Billboard walkthru Question - I didn't do the screenshots yet, I wanted to get the writeup out there and then do the map in case the order needed to be changed. (And they will have to wait until I start a new save and get a Manhattan Custom without smashing any gates or BillBoards.) But I am not sure what makes the best shot for these. For the SuperJumps, it was pretty easy, but for the Billboards - for example - for Map #7 which is in the train yard, but you smash it by jumping down from the parking garage - Do you want a shot of the starting point for the jump, or from the rooftop just before the smash, or just from the train yard of the billboard, even though you are a ways away from this shot for the action? Thoughts? BTW, I just checked and if we want to follow precedent, Evild70 just took a shot of the billboard, but to me that is perhaps not as useful as showing how you line up to smash it. Then again, if there are multiple ways to smash it, then it becomes a question of which to use - and EvilD70 even wasn't consistent, for example: http://picasaweb.google.com/evild70/BurnoutParadiseBillboards#5165097923343265922 - His #26 which is my Number 6 (Map 7) - he is showing the Billboard itself, even though you jump onto the roof to smash it. http://picasaweb.google.com/evild70/BurnoutParadiseBillboards#5165098030717448546 - His #40, which is my #20 (Map 24), he is showing the rear side of the Billboard, which you will only see after you have taken the shortcut and are about to smash it. Anyway - here's the rought draft of what I have so far. (Map numbers match the Operation Burnout map in the main article) Also, I'm not stuck, I just ran out of time and wanted to post a progress report: BillBoard Smash Walkthrough The following table gives an efficient route to complete most Billboard Smashes and unlock the BillBoard achievement. Some of the smashes require a decent car, and the Hunter Manhattan seems to be a good low-ranking choice. Tiger-Heli 12:31, November 23, 2009 (UTC) Draft Comments I prefer EvilD's second shot that is taken right before you drive into the billboard. But, now that I think about it, wouldn't the first one be more helpful in looking for them? *sigh* ::The billboard are much more convoluted than the Super Jumps or Smash Gates. For both of those, you simply show "This is what it looks like when you are about to run through it and get credit" For the billboards - if you read my walkthru, often I don't even talk about where the billboard is (although the map shows it) - I may just say - Drive to this garage and jump off this ramp and you'll smash through the billboard and land on I-88." The main question is do we want to show the billboard (which may have no relation to where you go to smash it), or where you start for the jump to smash it (which might not have the billboard in it), or both. The second option is further complicated if there is more than one method of smashing the billboard, and in some cases your might even want several images (jump from frame 1 to the roof on frame 2 to the roof on frame 3) ideally video works best, but that's quite a bit of effort. Sorry for not making things easier ...Tiger-Heli 15:20, November 21, 2009 (UTC) :::I think just showing the billboard would be sufficient, and far less complicated. ::::That works for me, I've got more to do on the guide, though, and then I'd like to get the map re-numbered and the screenshots will come last.Tiger-Heli 16:39, November 21, 2009 (UTC) On the maps, I would really prefer to use EvilD70's map as a basis, but either map will need the numbers erased and redrawn. That might be difficult without a layered map with the billboard numbers in their own layer, so it might need to be redrawn from scratch.Tiger-Heli 12:31, November 23, 2009 (UTC) :I haven't tried yet, but I think I figured out how to re-number the maps ... Evild70 had a comment on his page that he got the original maps from here and he basically left his at 1600x1200, so I think I should be able to make the blank map the bottom layer and then erase anything off the top layer and the bottom layer will replace it (so I can erase the numbers).Tiger-Heli 20:11, November 23, 2009 (UTC) ::Just experimented and that worked great. Not sure how to put the new numbers on - Evild70 somehow managed to feather the images in black but an Arial Black font in Paint.Net seems to work well and be readable.Tiger-Heli 20:41, November 23, 2009 (UTC) I also found an error on the map on Buropedia of the Paradise City regions. The Western border of Rockridge Cliffs in Harbor Town includes and excludes some land that is part of White Mountain according to both Evild70 and Burnopedia's Billboard maps.Tiger-Heli 12:31, November 23, 2009 (UTC) New Status, Updates, and Questions * Walk-thru text is done - will update later * Map is done using Evild70's map re-numbered to match walk-thru - will update later. * Screenshots are done - will update later - screenshots are not always taken showing how to smash them - my idea was you will use the screenshot to verify what area you are in and the text or video to see how to smash it. * Videos are NOT done yet, but I can create them - using Fraps and Virtualdub at 512x384 resolution, videos are 5 to 6 Mb each. Questions: :* Burnopedia does not seem to support videos, and Photobucket does not on free accounts, but I think I can upload to YouTube, correct? :* YouTube supports up to 2GB per video, so I could easily shoot at 1024x768, but the file size would be larger for anyone wanting to download the files or view them here (and possible bandwidth issues). Many of the vids on YT are 320x240 and fuzzy, so 512x384 is an improvement, any thoughts on preferred resolution? :* Videos are currently in .avi format and that seems to be all that Fraps supports, but YouTube only mentions MP4 and FLV formats, so I don't know if YouTube will allow .avi files (I forgot to bring a test file to upload). I think there are freeware converters from .avi to either format, but not sure which is preferred. Thoughts? Thanks!Tiger-Heli 14:56, November 30, 2009 (UTC) Also - is there any way to turn off weather (fog) effects in the game? I took all the screenshots of the billboards at 12:00 noon, but sometimes the fog rolled in and I didn't want to wait for it to clear. For the videos, I would prefer clear weather, but not a show-stopper ... (Doesn't look like it per Google, though)Tiger-Heli 18:31, November 30, 2009 (UTC) :Yes, use Youtube. :Use the best quality you have. Youtube has an option to view the video in either normal or high quality (or HD if the resolution is huge). :Youtube axcepts avi, it just says that mp4 and flv are prefered. :No, fog cannot be turned off. :Oh, and one more thing, Youtube videos can only be 10 minutes long, so take that in mind when you're deciding how the video(s) should be. ::5 things; ::*Use Windows Movie Maker to turn your AVIs into WMVs as AVI puts quality in your videos that you don't really need. ::*Youtube goes from 640x480 to 1208x720 (720p) resolutions for videos. ::*You can't turn fog off. ::*Why not have imgaes that link to your videos. ::*Youtube supports many files during upload but converts them to MP4 once upload is complete. ::Ive been here :::You mean 1280x720? And it also says it supports 1920x1080. http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=132460 ::::Paradise on PC doesn't go to 1080 without a screen that supports it. :::::*Windows Movie Maker didn't seem to work well for me. The Raw FRAPS AVI's were around 120 Mb, and VirtualDub got them down to 5-6 Mb (at 512x384). I downloaded Moyea Video4Web and will likely try going from .avi to MP4 or FLV with both the raw and compressed files and use whichever works best (preferably the raw as it eliminates another step). :::::*I use 1024x768 for the game, but FRAPS has an option for half-size, but I can disable that. I COULD use up to 1280x720 (looks squished on-screen but fine for playback, or 1280x960, but I don't know that there's much point for web video. :::::*Bummer on the fog. :::::*I was planning something like this, but I think I accidentally deleted it: I'm guessing the Video portion could link to the YouTube file ...Tiger-Heli 19:30, November 30, 2009 (UTC) Added the video above, but it probably should open in a new page! Tiger-Heli 19:53, November 30, 2009 (UTC) :You might want to make the video size a little larger. ::Or better yet :::Don't mean to be dense, Exlonox, but which video size needs to be larger. The table is using 100px width for the video and the image. Obviously, you would want to actually view the video in higher res, which is what I meant by having it open in a new page. I just "stole" the example vid from the Annihilator page, but it is 320x240 on YT, and I am talking about 1024x768 vids - but do you think that is too low? LemansRacer has the right idea, but I don't know if people would want to see the screenshots at 1024x768 also, and that might be hard to figure out ... Thoughts? Tiger-Heli 20:05, November 30, 2009 (UTC) ::::I meant the video in the table. It's not nearly large enough to see what's going on in it. :::::Well first off you didn't close one of your spans so everyone's text is yellow, but I fixed that. And for the videos, if you add #t=number heres to the end of the url, then it'll go to that many seconds into the video. That way the links can jump right to where that billboard is in the video. ::::::I'm thinking of two options: ::::::*The table that I had with separate screenshots and videos, but I would want the video one to just show the preview from YT and then open in a new tab when clicked. ::::::*LeMansRacer's idea works great for me, if nobody thinks the full-size screengrabs are important. ::::::BTW, I'm planning on 120 separate videos, one for each billboard, so no real need to go XX number of seconds in, and if they take more than 10 minutes we're all in trouble!!! Tiger-Heli 20:40, November 30, 2009 (UTC) Well have fun with that! Every video is going to be like 10 seconds or less! :The simple ones will be. The ones that you have to climb a garage and jump to another building and stop on the roof before proceeding will be longer. And that is a problem because ... ??? Tiger-Heli 21:00, November 30, 2009 (UTC) ::He's pointing out that it will be more work for you. :::Yea, I just think it would be easier/shorter for you to upload 12 vids with 10 smashes each than to sit there and upload 120 videos. ::::The way I play, it will take a couple attempts to hit the simple ones, 5 or 6 attempts to hit the difficult ones, so separate is probably better, but point taken ...Tiger-Heli 21:17, November 30, 2009 (UTC) :::::Use a video editor to cut out the failed attemps. ::::::It's really not that bad though - F9 to record, F9 to quit recording, if I mess up I just delete the vid and start again .... (Not saying it won't take a while, but ...) Tiger-Heli 21:26, November 30, 2009 (UTC) Well there you go! When you finish 10 videos just merge them all together. Tuesday's 1Dec09 Discussion Is there a way to have the snapshot and if you click on it have it link to the youTube video like LeMansRacer did above, but then have a text link to the snapshot image below that if people want to see the snapshot larger? Does that sound like it would work? (I thought I did that here, but the video link no longer works (although it is embedded, i.e. you see the youtube link on the screentip, but clicking the image goes to the snapshot): Got some interesting video results last night, and some things I could use some help and advice on: * 1024x768 really jumps the file size, but that's not a huge deal. A 54.5 second video was 507 MB compared to about 120 MB at 512x384. Compressing the file with VirtualDub reduced the file size to 16 MB, but the result was blotchy and noticeably degraded - much worse than at 512x384, where file sizes were about 120 and 5-6 MB, respectively. * Moyea Video4Web Freeware is an interesting program. There are dropdowns for Video and Audio Quality, but only Medium can be selected from the drop-down (High and Low are listed with PRO next to them and are not selectable). However, if you click "Settings" you can change the output size from 640x480 to "Original" and select High Quality for both options. This must be done prior to converting any file, though. The uncompressed .avi file reduced to a 32 MB .FLV or .MP4 file with little to no loss in quality and with little difference between the two files. It took about 2 minutes to compress the files. Oddly, the 16 MB compressed .AVI ended up as a 25 MB .FLV, so no reason to use it. * The audio is horribly distorted (in all files), and I'm not sure why. I started out getting no audio at all, and after searching Google and checking things out I found out that in the Realtek Audio control panel under Mixer - Recording, "Stereo Mix" was set to "Mute". Audio now records but there is a metallic hum to the engine sounds and other items in the game. Initially, I thought the input level was too loud, and turning it down seemed to help, but listening to earlier and later video files, the noise is still there, just quieter. I'm seriously considering muting the mixer again and just not having sound in the videos. * This site recommends changing to Windows input in FRAPS and disabling Audio Hardware Acceleration, but I didn't try that yet. * Also, I'm recording FRAPS at 30 FPS to reduce filesize, don't know if that could be causing the issue, but didn't experiment with anything else. * I do have one of the videos and can upload it if you would like to hear it - if that would help. Video is here. Thanks Tiger-Heli 12:18, December 1, 2009 (UTC) NEW QUESTION: From what I can tell, even if you select HD and expand the browser, YT only displays the image at 640x480 (although it says it supports up to 1920x1080). Unless I set an option incorrectly when I uploaded the file, is there any good reason to make the final .MP4 or .FLV videos at 1024x768 if YT will only display them at 640x480 and I assume end users can only download them at this resolution and about 5 Mb files? Tiger-Heli 13:37, December 1, 2009 (UTC) :All this video speak is foreign to me. But, I do have some advice for the video. Could you make it a little less "rambling" for lack of a better word. It would be much better if your route was concise and to-the-point.